Resources
To those who do not know the resources of mind these will sound like
rash statements; but science proves beyond question that in the well
springs of every man's mind are unplumbed depths—undiscovered
deposits of energy, wisdom and ability. Sound these depths—bring these
treasures to the surface—and you gain an astounding wealth of new
power.
From the rude catamaran of the savages to the giant liners of today,
carrying their thousands from continent to continent, is but a step in the
development of Mind. From the lowly cave man, cowering in his burrow
in fear of lightning or fire or water, to the engineer of today, making
servants of all the forces of Nature, is but a measure of difference in
mental development.
Man, without reasoning mind, would be as the monkeys are—prey of any
creature fast enough and strong enough to pull him to pieces. At the
mercy of wind and weather. A poor, timid creature, living for the
moment only, fearful of every shadow.Through his superior mind, he learned to make fire to keep himself warm; weapons with which to defend himself from the savage creatures round about; habitations to protect himself from the elements. Through mind he conquered the forces of Nature.Through mind he has made
machinery do the work of millions of horses and billions of hands. What
he will do next, no man knows, for man is just beginning to awaken to
his own powers. He is just getting an inkling of the unfathomed riches
buried deep in his own mind. Like the gold seekers of ’49, he has panned
the surface gravel for the gold swept down by the streams. Now he is
starting to dig deeper to the pure vein beneath.
We bemoan the loss of our forests. We worry over our dwindling
resources of coal and oil. We decry the waste in our factories. But the
greatest waste of all, we pay no attention to—the waste of our own
potential mind power. Professor Wm. James, the world-famous Harvard
psychologist, estimated that the average man uses only 10% of his
mental power. He has unlimited power—yet he uses but a tithe of it.
Unlimited wealth all about him—and he doesn't know how to take hold
of it. With God-like powers slumbering within him, he is content to
continue in his daily grind—eating, sleeping, working—plodding through
an existence little more eventful than the animals', while all of Nature, all
of life, calls upon him to awaken, to bestir himself.
The power to be what you want to be, to get what you desire, to
accomplish whatever you are striving for, abides within you. It rests with
you only to bring it forth and put it to work. Of course you must
know how to do that, but before you can learn how to use it, you
must realize that you possess this power. So our first objective is to get
acquainted with this power.
For Psychologists and Metaphysicians the world over are agreed in this—
that Mind is all that counts. You can be whatever you make up your mind
to be. You need not be sick. You need not be unhappy. You need not be
poor. You need not be unsuccessful. You are not a mere clod. You are not
a beast of burden, doomed to spend your days in unremitting labor in
return for food and housing. You are one of the Lords of the Earth, with
unlimited potentialities. Within you is a power which, properly grasped
and directed, can lift you out of the rut of mediocrity and place you
among the Elect of the earth—the lawyers, the writers, the statesmen, the
big business men—the DOERS and the THINKERS. It rests with you
only to learn to use this power which is yours—this Mind which can do
all things.
Your body is for all practical purposes merely a machine which the mind
uses. This mind is usually thought of as consciousness; but the conscious
part of your mind is in fact the very smallest part of it. Ninety per cent
of your mental life is subconscious, so when you make active use of only
the conscious part of your mind you are using but a fraction of your real
ability; you are running on low gear. And the reason why more people do
not achieve success in life is because so many of them are content to run
on low gear all their lives—on SURFACE ENERGY. If these same people
would only throw into the fight the resistless force of their subconscious
minds they would be, amazed at their undreamed of capacity for winning
success.
''The Secret Of The Ages'' Robert Collier